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I imagine this means Aletha is racing for Canyon factory racing next year. That bike she is riding is rare..only three Canyon riders raced one in 2024.

Ally raced a Canyon at at least one of the Monster Pro Downhill races and at least one NWCup. That I recall anyway. https://youtu.be/uoHj0xfy0Oo?feature=shared&t=525 Different color frame Canyon than the one in the IG post though. She raced a Trek at the Fox US Open: https://youtu.be/S835vZurhAs?feature=shared&t=389 Now it looks like she's down in Windrock training on a Canyon. We're not her sponsor for '25 (sad face) so y'all are on your own with this one. Oh, and before it looked like Marine to Canyon was super dubious, but now it seems possible at least. So hmmm.

I wonder what an Atherton steel hardtail would cost... Lugged. 12 sizes. Rigorously tested. Perfect bottom bracket. Perfect headset. Peace of mind knowing that it's all made as well as possible. Lifetime warranty. Long term support. A little caché from the name. $1500 is completely within the realm of possibilities there. What is your hourly wage at your job? Should people who have a job they like be paid well enough to survive and retire? Let's pretend this isn't a fully custom bike but a bike that'll be built boutique style but repeatedly. 6 hours to put together the frame...

A $1500+ small batch steel hardtail frame, a $1200 Norco Optic frame, a $1100 Turner Scrub TI frame, and a $700 Banshee Paradox V3 frame. All of these frames have objectively different ride qualities, and many more subjective differences. You can decide to value them however you like. The market has decided to rank their value in this order. Also see: wine, collector's cars, fashion, cigars, concert tickets, art. What's the correct value for any of these things? If a frog had pockets, what would it carry in them?

Didn’t the Shimano guy on the pinkbike podcast say that one of their goals is to always have a well working mechanical XT drivetrain? All this wireless only and 13 speed does not really sound typical for them

Only Deore will have a mechanical,12 speed version. SLX will go kaput, as will Saint, and XTR/XT/Deore will be 13 speed wireless, ANT+ compatible. XTR and XT will have Race (compact cassette, 2-pot brakes) and Enduro (wide range cassette, 4-pot brakes) versions.

Speaking of trying things. Trek needs to stop baiting the steel Top Fuel and do a fun limited run of them. And people need to stop going in the comments asking for a steel enduro rig or steel Roscoe or whatever lol. Give people an inch and they always take a mile. Short travel FS steel is quite unique. Would be cool to see it in the market. Can't quite remember the last time I got genuinely excited about a Trek release. 🤔

I've always thought Frameworks tagline should be, "Frames that make sense, with cranks that make none."

I'm waiting for some actual tech rumors. Maybe a specific chat on product copying/sourcing/geo-cultural-politics

To a point. When I was working as a design engineer not in the bike industry we'd use local manufacturing for prototyping and often it was fucking pathetic, nothing like the drawing, totally unusable, and then you'd have to have arguments or pay extra to get what you actually wanted. Often the machinist "knew better" so disregarded the spec. Or you'd send your drawings off to China and you'd actually get what you asked for, with similar turnaround times, and pay FAR less. You just have to communicate your design intent extremely well, and have your drawings perfect. I work...

Not that I have to tell the crowed on this form anything, but once again I get irked with people who try to pass off cheeper "knock offs" as just as good as the real thing because "they are all made in the same factory." I mean, they probably are, but by paying for the actual product instead of the knock off you're also paying for the engineering (and marketing) that goes into the product, and at least the engineering portion of it is worth paying for. Granted, if you genuinely can't afford it and its your only option then...

Oh, they have R&D - Rip-off and Duplicate 😉

Yeah that's pretty blatant copying imho. Oh and the brakes are ok at best - I bought a set to test personally and it felt unpolished. Had one handlerbar clamp screw not able to tighten the clamp properly right out of the box. The power was OK, but for the price (I think it was $500 and change when I bought it) you can get yourself just about anything...Dominion A4s, Trp DHR Evos, Mavens, Maguras... Compared them side by side with the real deal Trickstuffs, and the difference was apparent. Even just the lever pull the TS had a bit...

I was OK with the Lewis brakes because of them being pretty open about them reverse engineering the trickstuff brakes and them gradually moving away from that design, but those cranks are ridiculous. Of all the cranks to rip off, why some of the ugliest on the market haha? Just don't get their visual appeal.

Dude, don't give them any new ideas.😁 P.S.

"there are only so many ways you design a crank" says the average vital user. People will buy the bullshit that they are just "inspired by the best" and vote with their money. I hope 5dev trolls them in typical 5dev fashion. The Germans are too nice. What is next? CNC copy of Intend stems? Copy of Yoshimura pedals?🍿

Yup. And they were told to not be a copy cat again before release but apparently ignored it. Copying arguably the best brake on the market and even doing improvements AND then iterating on them with more improvements is one thing. Blindly copying the most well known CNC crank on the market that is not even the best design for. A crank is just pure laziness... I was in the give the benefit of doubt camp before this release, now there is no helping them.

Lol, Lewis at it again. It seems they are inspired by 5DEV now. Looks like a 5DEV lookalike crank: https://www.instagram.com/lewisbike_official/reel/DCq43PoTeLv/?hl=en

I would imagine Pivot would be ok if nothing were in flux...but teams are still signing/losing riders (or haven't announced the riders they've signed) so theoretically a few teams could come out of "nowhere" with big-points signings that push Pivot out of the top 15. BK didn't have a great season, Jake, Dane, and Ryan all earned points but there's a rumor that Jake and Dane are going to Norco. I don't think Jenna, Morgane, Teagan, Matt, or Eddie earned any points that contribute to the DH team rankings. If I were in spots 11-15 in the potential mtb elite...

There is a Pan American governing body according to Google https://www.copaci.org/en/home/ The current champions are Juan Munoz and Valentina Roa Sanchez, the 2024 championships were held on the same weekend as the US Open, oops.